Then they marched to from Fintas to Egailah, where the house of Tahous is located, chanting anti-government slogans.
The opposition had earlier described the sentence as “political” and called for supporters to gather at Sawwagh’s house to express solidarity with him and to denounce the clampdown against opposition figures.
“This is a political ruling,” former MP and opposition leader Mussallam Al-Barrak, who is facing similar charges, said after yesterday’s verdict was issued.
“They have breached the constitution and played with the election system … now they want to terrorise us … we will not surrender and will not be scared,” Barrak told opposition supporters at the house of Tahous.
Barrak called for unifying the opposition under one leadership and said that daily protests will be staged in various areas of Kuwait.
Chief of the Awazem tribe Falah bin Jame, the largest bedouin tribe in Kuwait, strongly criticized the ruling and warned the Kuwaiti judiciary against being politicized by the government and used against the opposition.
He said that harsh sentences were being issued against opposition members while others were being spared, adding that the three former MPs did not deserve jail terms for what they said. Former Islamist opposition MP Khaled Al-Sultan warned that “politicising the judiciary” could trigger violent reactions and held the government responsible for the consequences.
The Information Ministry said Kuwait has a “transparent and independent judicial system”. “All citizens, regardless of their position, are equal in the eyes of the law.
Anyone accused of a crime in Kuwait will get a fair trial with a comprehensive legal defence and open appeals process,” said the ministry.
Kuwait has seen many opposition-led demonstrations in protest against the amendment to the electoral law which they claimed allowed the government to influence election results and elect a rubberstamp Assembly.
Mohammad Al-Humaidi, director of Kuwait Society for Human Rights, confirmed yesterday’s verdict and said what the defendants spoke at the gathering was “more of an advice rather than a criticism”.
“There is no clause in the Kuwaiti constitution that bars people from addressing the Amir directly and advising him,” Humaidi said. Sawwagh said that he is not going to apologize for what he said at the public rally on Oct 10 and repeated it in front of the public, saying that “the country was not going in the right direction”.
The three former MPs were taken to court following remarks they made at the Oct 10 public rally in which they warned the government against amending the electoral law.
They were charged of undermining the status of the Amir which is considered a state security offense in the country’s penal code, punishable by up to five years in jail.
The sentence is with immediate effect which means that the jail term must be implemented immediately without waiting for the appeals court verdict.
The criminal court has in the past few weeks sentenced a number of opposition youth activists to between two and 10 years in jail for writing tweets deemed offensive to the Amir.
In a surprising move, Shiite MP Hussein Al-Qallaf yesterday filed a request to grill Communications Minister Salem Al-Othaina over alleged administrative irregularities as MPs Saadoun Hammad and Abdullah Al-Tameemi said they will file a request to grill the oil minister on Sunday.
Qallaf’s grilling, the first in this pro-government Assembly elected just two months ago, is based on allegations that the minister reappointed senior employees in the ministry after they were found guilty of committing serious administrative violations by probe committees.
The lawmaker also claimed that the minister promoted some of those senior employees while reinstating them.
The other issue in the grilling is that the minister did not answer a large number of questions Qallaf had sent to him. Assembly Speaker Ali Al-Rashed said that he has received the grilling request and it will be placed on the agenda of the Feb 19 session.
Meanwhile, Hammad and Tameemi said they plan to submit a request to grill Oil Minister Hani Hussein on Sunday over a number of issues including an $ 800 million contract with Shell, violations at refineries, the Dow Chemical contract, an alleged deal with an Israeli company and alleged violations in appointments.
In other Assembly business, MPs approved a draft law for unemployment benefits, amended two articles in the labour law and approved the formation of a public authority for labourers to control the recruitment of expatriates.
